So I unexpectedly got an ebook of Thrall and read it last night. Good read, enjoyable enough if I didn’t think about it too much. It felt a bit like reading Forgotten Realms novels when I was younger – enjoyable romp through lands with familiar characters.

I really found myself wondering about how I fit into this world, though. The narrative of the player character is difficult to construct when the main storyline is always carried by the same few NPCs – an advantage of the FR books was that the world allowed for both, that no one clique of NPCs defined the world. They may have defined a part of it, especially those covered by a given author, but not the whole thing.

Azeroth feels smaller, somehow. Not in context of the stories, but in the space inbetween, the space where PCs live. I enjoyed reading about Thrall, but it’s hard for me to reconcile the events in book with events in game, with the adventures of Cynwise. It’s like the only way to participate with the meta story is to hang out with the cast of demigods.